Penny Press

Las Vegas, NV Volume 4 Number 2 O

CTOBER 5, 2006

Anybody Can Get Rich Quick In Las Vegas Real Estate?

Right.See Cautionary Tale Page 3

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 2

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Credits:Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg Diane Grassi Al Thomas Circulation: Doug French Bill HereCharlotte Weinberg Brent Jordan Pat Choate Joyce Meyer Bob Jennings

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By DOUG FRENCHPenny Press Contributing Editor

Those were the days back in 2004. The housing boom in Las Vegas was at a fever pitch. Builders were holding lotteries to see who would gain the privilege of buying

their homes. Speculators hit town like a swarm of locus buying up all the homes they could. There were only 2,500 used homes listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and realtors complained that they couldn’t get sellers to accept bids at listed prices.

But now over 20,000 homes are up for sale on MLS in Sin City and builders are giving away thousands

of dollars in incentives to entice homebuyers to take the plunge. And for those who believed the way to riches was buying as many houses as possible with no money down, reality now bites.

Of course taking responsibility for one’s actions is not the current American way. So instead of a trip to credit counseling, at least one Las Vegas couple has engaged legal counsel in suing a multi-tasking real-tor/mortgage lender/leasing agent and his wife who allegedly caused their financial pain and suffering.

In a complaint filed recently in Clark County, Nevada, a husband and wife are suing a Las Vegas real-tor and his wife for “fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, bad faith, and unfair dealings, as real estate profes-sionals, mortgage brokers and fail-ing to provide suitable renters for each of the properties.”

According to the complaint, our would-be real estate moguls were earning a combined income of $60,000 a year at the time: the husband as a self-employed painter, the wife as a hairdresser. Back in October of 2004, with the Las Vegas real estate market rocking, as fate would have it, the hairdresser was doing a client’s hair one day and mentioned that she was interested in real estate investing.

The client had just the person for her stylist to talk to: her husband happened to be a real estate sales-man. The salesman urged the hair-dresser to buy as many homes as she could with 100 percent financing using loans that require interest-only payments monthly.

The realtor projected that the homes would rise in value to gener-ate equity of nearly $1,350,000 in five years, with very little risk. The

novice investors had good credit so obtaining the loans would be no problem. In November of 2004, the painter and his wife purchased two properties and the following month they bought five more. In January 2005, they bought their dream home to live in.

The realtor Defendant sourced the property investments, acted as the real estate salesman, and also was the mortgage loan officer for each transaction. He also offered to find renters for all of the properties, and it turned out that his wife pro-cessed the mortgage applications: A true one-stop shop. Conveniently, the realtor also had engaged a com-pliant escrow officer to handle all of the escrows.

The complaint alleges that the “unsophisticated” Plaintiffs were rushed by the Defendants to close on

Penny PressLAS VEGAS, NEVADA 16 PAGES VOLUME 4 NUMBER 2 OCTOBER 5, 2006

Penny WisdomI like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. —Donald Trump

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of Las Vegas

Inside:McDonald, Foley GOP's Cross To BearSee Editorial Page 6

PAT CHOATE PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6BOOK REVIEW PAGE 7BILLHERE PAGE 8AL THOMAS PAGE 10JOYCE MEYER PAGE 12JOE TARTARO PAGE 13PET OF THE WEEK PAGE 15

Reality Now Bites...

Analysis

Continued on page4

the homes quickly and that the hairdresser was not able to review loan docu-ments that she signed. However, during the boom, the Las Vegas couple evidently believed themselves to be savvy millionaires-to-be, and confident enough to refer family and friends to their new real estate guru, who in turn made 45 sales to these referrals.

With no renters in sight, the hairdresser and her husband had quickly racked up $2,623,500 in debt on the houses, between notes secured by the first and second trust deeds. The realtor actually covered the rent payments for several months, while he looked for tenants, but the investors had to cover the shortfall between debt service and rents: $5,772 per month, $772 more per month than the Plaintiffs earned at their two jobs. The hairdresser charged the shortfall on her credit cards.

All the financial pain and suffering would be worth it in five years when the value of the properties would total over $4.4 million according to the realtor. However, that would mean that these average, relatively new, Las Vegas tract homes, ranging in size from 1,386 square feet to 3,754 square feet would have to increase in value to $286 per square foot, more than $100 per square foot more than what Zillow.com currently values the homes. The real estate website values the homes collectively at just over $2.7 million or $177 per square foot. However, even that value may not hold. According to Las Vegas housing expert Dennis Smith, builders, like KB Home, are taking advantage of lower material and labor costs and selling new homes for $150 to $165 a square foot in new communities in the Las Vegas Valley.

The realtor eventually found renters for the properties, however, the investor couple were forced to evict five of the tenants for nonpayment. At least one renter was more interested in servicing a drug habit than paying the rent, and as one would expect, the evicted tenants were not kind to the properties.

When the painter and the hairdresser expressed frustration with their lack of cash flow, the realtor had the perfect solution, suggesting, “they should find a new occupation that would ‘pay more and help them cover the negatives on the properties.’” It was recommend that the painter become a mortgage loan officer and that his wife sell real estate.

The hairdresser took the realtor’s advice and after taking some real estate classes she realized “there were problems with the way the transac-tions were conducted.” She also came to the conclusion that the realtor had made some healthy commissions from her purchases.

Evidently, it was only after extensive knowledge was gained while training to be a mortgage loan officer and studying for a real estate sales license that the now former hairdresser realized borrowing 100 per cent of the sales price to buy real estate that generated a $5,000-plus negative cash flow each month created “a potential for serious financial hardship, such as foreclosure or personal bankruptcy if they could not make their mortgage payments.”

The “unsophisticated, unwary and unsuspecting Plaintiffs” claim that the realtor promised to cover all cash shortfalls until the expiration of the two-year pre-payment penalty for the loans and the properties could then be sold. The realtor Defendant claims, “he didn’t promise them anything, and that hard times are all around.”

It would be a stretch to describe the Las Vegas economy as “hard times.” Gamers are now routinely winning a billion dollars each month from gam-blers. Taxable sales in Nevada set a new record for the fiscal year ended June 30th, and over $30 billion in investment is either under construction

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 4

Get Rich Quick—NOT!Continued from page 3

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or in the planning stages for the Las Vegas Strip. Back in July of 2005, about the time finances were getting tight for our

investor couple, Neil Barsky wrote in the online version of the Wall Street Journal: “The reality is this: There is no housing bubble in this country. Our strong housing market is a function of myriad factors with real economic underpinnings.…” He went on to write that it was a myth that specula-tors were driving home prices. “But bubbles happen when prices become unhinged from intrinsic value,” Barsky wrote. “A house has utility. Rational people might be willing to pay more for a water view, or for living close to work, or for a larger lot. Such voluntary economic decisions are neither irra-tional nor exuberant.”

How about buying eight houses that generate a negative cash flow exceeding your entire income? Mr. Barsky, there’s a couple in Las Vegas you should meet.

Protect The Congressional Pages

Once again, Congress is being rocked by a congressional page scan-dal. This time a GOP Congressman from Florida (Mark Foley) has been caught sexually harassing a 16-year old page via the Internet. And once again, we have pompous columnists calling for the elimination of the pro-gram, arguing that pages no longer serve a purpose and that is better to remove the temptation from deviant Members of Congress as opposed to getting rid of the deviants.

Such sentiments are nonsense. The problem is not with the pages or the program but with Congress’s inability and unwillingness to police its Members.

The congressional page program is a very special experience offered to talented young men and women from around the nation. They get to see up close how the Legislative Branch of our government works. Most come to Washington holding the prejudices of their parents yet soon learn that politics and gover-nance is a bit more complex. Many come thinking they will hate some Member or another and soon dis-cover qualities in that person that are admirable but are never made known by a media that reduces everything

to simplicity. These kids see gov-ernment in a way that a civics class can never explain. The vast majority is inspired.

Over the past two centuries, sev-eral hundred Members of Congress first experience with public service was when they served as pages. Thousands of pages have gone onto other professions and walks of life better prepared to understand the intricacies of Congress and their government.

Being a page is a privilege and those who serve in that capacity merit special recognition.

Yet, a dark side exists. Congress has always had its share of sexual deviants and predators. They prey on pages, staffs, colleagues, lobby-ists and anyone else they can. Most are never detected.

The teenage pages are at an in-between period in their develop-ment. They are no longer children, but they are not yet adults. Most are still figuring out how to deal with life. Few are emotionally equipped to deal with the advances of an authority figure such as a Senator or a Representative.

For that reason, Congress has built a special hotel for pages, which is given protection by the Capitol Police. The page program is admin-istered by two Boards – one for the House and the other for the Senate.

Most importantly, pages are sup-posed to be under the protection of the U.S. Congress. Parents send their children to serve and learn in these positions with the expectation that the 535 people who are elected to guide the nation will protect their children from deviants and predators both inside and outside the Congress. This is a minimal expectation.

In the case of Congressman Mark Foley harassing a 16-year old male page, that system failed totally.

Worse, when the GOP House leadership learned of Foley’s action they dithered. One Member passed a memo to another. The memo got

shelved. Then, another Member spoke to the Speaker of the House, whose memory about all this has failed. Another Member talked with Foley, did nothing, but soon after-wards got a $100,000 campaign con-tribution, which in retrospect has all the appearances of hush money.

Nothing would have happened had not Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which was given a copy of Foley’s e-mails by someone, went to the FBI in July. Then, things began to move. Nonetheless Foley stayed in office until the end of September, which incidentally was the end of the Congressional session. His vote was always there for the GOP. In retro-spect, the GOP leaders were more interested in hiding the scandal and the politics of getting their agenda enacted that protecting the pages.

Now, many responsible Republicans are calling for the res-ignation of all those GOP leaders who knew about this but did noth-ing. Democrats, of course, are also calling for their heads.

As for me, I say let the voters know who knew what when and allow the FBI to do their work. I’ll have more to say next week about what the voters should do. If the FBI finds any sexual crimes were committed, then the Feds should prosecute to the full limit of the law.

As for the page program, an outside supervisory board is needed, perhaps made up of former pages. It needs to watch the Congress. Finally, all Members of Congress should be reminded that the pages are our children and we will not react kindly to anyone treating them anyway but properly. As for Mark Foley, he can only be glad that the 16-year old was not my son, daugh-ter, grandchild or those of many friends. I suspect many readers of this paper share our view.

PAT CHOATE

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 5

Commentary: Pat Choate

The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:

Family Court Judge William Voy for ruling that LaMarcus Gamble, 14, accused of helping to kidnap, rob and shoot a 20-year-old good Samaritan will be charged as an adult. This little punk did a carjacking that started as a house jacking and now, he told Voy that he had tried cocaine several weeks prior to the incident and started doing the drug daily. His mother also told the judge her son is a problem child but not a hard- core criminal. Voy didn't buy that crap and neither should we. Nice work, Judge.

The Clark County Court Clerk's office for finally updating a computer sys-tem which dates back to the 80s and allowing us access to our courts.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:

Carson City District Judge Michael Griffin who ruled Tuesday that the Nevada Tax Commission has the authority under a state confidentiality statute to meet in closed session to consider taxpayer appeals. Just what we in this state need. Secret proceedings so that we can give tax breaks to power players and you won't even get to read about it unless we figure it out.

Enough is enough.

Lynette McDonald—or at least her lame campaign for re-election as a County Commissioner—says that a union hiring a private investigator to shoot video of her living outside her district is “sleazy” and “stalking”.

She (the collective she, herself, her lawyer and her cam-paign) says that it’s all the media’s fault for prying into the public records of her divorce which grant her the house out-side her district and show the records of a no money down land purchase in Arizona from a developer whose water she has carried on the Commission.

She says that land deal is available to anyone.

And we say that’s a bunch of crap.

Lynette McDonald (you only get one last name here and she should tell us if she’s changing back to Boggs in which case we will as well) is the local GOP’s version of Congressman Mark Foley.

Nobody should kid themselves.

Her real residence has been an open secret for as long as she’s served on the Commission. Just like Foley’s electronic homosexual flirting with House pages.

And, as an aside, Sheriff candidate Jerry Airola should prob-ably ask Undersheriff Doug Gillespie at their next debate (which Gillespie is trying to cancel) where were Metro’s investigators as opposed to the police union which actu-ally hired the PI/Videographer who documented McDonald’s perjury?

The fact is that McDonald is a greedy, grasping, social climbing novice politician who has been a protected species because she is a Republican. And she’s black. And, right now, black republicans are—or were―a protected species.

Well guess what.

Four of her former colleagues are now headed to Federal prison for similar acts. They’re all white. They used to be a

protected species. Clark County Commissioners.

McDonald just doesn’t get it.

If she’s really a Republican than she’s a member of the Abramoff-Foley wing of the party.

Bribes disguised as campaign cash and sleazy sexually ori-ented emails and instant messages are what clothes-lined Jack Abramoff and Mark Foley respectively.

So far, McDonald is one for two.

The way we see it, she can voluntarily remove herself from the scene, like Foley, or she can end up in prison exactly like her former colleagues and Abramoff and we’ll have no sympathy for her at all. The epitaph on her public service should be, “she was too stupid to be a contender.”

And far be it from us to carry water for the unions and the Democrats, but McDonald’s TV commercial running against Democratic opponent Susan Brager is truly the sleaziest ad of a very sleazy campaign.

It implies –no, it outright states—that Susan Brager as a school board member is solely responsible for the miserable condition of the Clark County Schools.

No, there’s plenty of blame to go around for that includ-ing some to be placed at McDonald’s feet as a County Commissioner. When was the last time you ever heard a public statement from McDonald as either a parent, a City Councilperson or a Commissioner about the sorry state of education in this county?

But the voters are a reasonably smart group and when somebody like McDonald thinks she can fool all of the people all of the time—like former Congressman Foley—they get their heads handed to them.

When that happens, the only thing McDonald will have left to do is to cry, “racism”.

And she will. FRED WEINBERG

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 6

OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

McDonald Local GOP's Foley–A Cross To Bear

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 7

Book Review: " Answering 911"

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“Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat” by Caroline Burauc.2006, Borealis Books

There you are, driving down the highway, singing along with the radio when you hear a horn, followed by a screech and a leg-wobbling crunch.

You pull over, your heart flip-flopping like a fish out of water, a spot just above your belly-button doing loop-de-loops.

Take assessment. Nobody’s hurt.You pull out your cell phone and call 911 immediately. Before long, the

red-and-blues are on their way and you’re shaky, but relieved.Did you get the name of the 911 operator? No? Few people do, but you

were glad he or she was there, right? In the new book “Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat” by Caroline Burau, you’ll learn what it’s like to be on the receiving end of those panicked calls.

Caroline Burau says that when she was growing up in northern Minnesota, she hated everything. She was raised in a devout and loving family, but she was an angry, wild child with a shy streak. School was a challenge but partying was fun. At age seventeen, Burau met the man who would introduce her to cocaine. Not long afterward, she was arrested for suspicion of drug possession and pled to a misdemeanor conviction in Florida.

When Burau got out of voluntary drug treatment in Minnesota, she went to back to school and became a journalist. On her weekly visits to the sheriff’s office, she says she became interested in work as a 911 operator because it paid better than journalism. She applied and was accepted into the program.

Over the course of months, Burau worked with people who taught her how to be calm, remember codes, and keep police officers and rescue per-sonnel safe. She worked with trainers who showed nerves of steel in the face of sure disaster. She learned the difference between emergency and empathy. Although Burau never thought she’d be able to handle the job by herself, she eventually did. What she couldn’t handle were the “cases” that haunt her even now.

How can someone deal with the horror in the voice of a 12-year-old as she describes her mother’s suicide to the 911 operator? Can anyone ever forget hearing gunshots through a phone line, knowing that nothing can be done to stop them? Who can sleep after hearing the screams of a woman who’s abused by her significant other?

Who could ever put this book down? Not me.“Answering 911” pulls the tarp off a job that usually goes unnoticed,

and exposes it with black humor, chaos, and a healthy dose of compassion. I found it particularly interesting to watch author Caroline Burau’s writing as she goes from wide-eyed, nervous newbie to someone with a “been-there-done-that-so-what” attitude. I loved her blunt truthfulness. I loved her patience and sympathy. I loved her stories of the good, the bad, and the goofy.

I just plain loved this book. If you’ve ever needed to call 911 or if you’ve wondered what it’s like on

the other end of the phone, read this book. “Answering 911” is incredible, and that’s no accident.

TERRI SCHLICHENMEyER

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 8

The Best Vegas Calendar BAR NONE!By Billhere

The FREE, e-mailed, VegasResource.com Newsletter and complete index of Las Vegas coupons for shows, buffets and attractions is available on the internet at:

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www.pennypresslv.com

OCTOBER, 2006================ 5 = Air service starts from Washington Dulles International Airport - Southwest Airlines.5 = Air service starts from Naashville-US Air.6= REO Speedwagon-Red Rock Station.6-7= Jay Leno - Mirage.5-8= Mickey’s Magic Show-Orleans.6-8= Aloha Festival and Concert - Cannery.6-8=The Osmond Brothers- Suncoast.7= Andre Agassi Benefit Concert - Phil Collins, Sarah McLachlan, Counting Crows - MGM Grand.12-14= Liza Minnelli - Luxor.12-15= Dionne Warwick- Orleans.13-14= George Lopez-LV Hilton.13-15= U.S. Open of Supercross-MGM Grand.13-15= Bill Acosta - Suncoast.14= Ray Price - Santa Fe Station.14-15= Ray Romano - Mirage.15=Los Lakers vs. Phoenix Suns- Thomas & Mack17=Lakers vs. Sacramento Kings-Thomas & Mack.19- Nov.1= Chicago - MGM Grand.20= Holiday Celebration on Ice - Orleans Arena.20-21= The Beach Boys - Luxor.20-22= Jose Feliciano - Orleans.21= Jimmy Buffett - MGM Grand.21= Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis-Orleans Arena.21= Bill Engvall - Green Valley Ranch.26-29=The Smothers Brothers- Orleans.27= Arturo Sandoval - Santa Fe Station.27-28= LeAnn Rimes - Luxor.27-28= David Spade - Mirage. 27-29= Professional Bull Riders-Mandalay Bay.28= Alan Jackson - Buffalo Bill’s, Primm, NV.28= Hawaiian Luau closing at the Imperial Palace.28= Jimmy Buffett - MGM Grand.31= Halloween.++++++++++Oct.?? = Construction starts on Phase 3 of the World Market Center. It will be a 16-story, 2.1 million-square-foot showroom along with an adjacent nine-story parking garage. Construction costs for that phase of the project are estimated at $500 million and will take 18 months to build.15% of this Phase is already rented!=============================LAS VEGAS OPENINGS COMING UP.=============================Oct. 6 = Opening of the Playboy Club in the Palms’ Fantasy Tower.++++++++++Oct. 7 = Opening new 600-seat theater - Golden Nugget.++++++++++Oct. 7 = STRICTLY BALLROOM Show opens-Golden Nugget.++++++++++

Oct. 9 = Redneck Comedy Live Show opening - Sahara.++++++++++Mid-Oct.= Shag With a Twist show opening - Plaza.++++++++++Oct.14 = COVER GIRLS show opens - Golden Nugget.++++++++++Oct.24= Gordie Brown Show grand opening - Venetian.++++++++++End-Oct.= South Coast changes name to South Point.+++++++++=============================LAS VEGAS CLOSINGS COMING UP.=============================Sep.30= Clint Holmes Show closing - Harrah’s.+++++++++Oct. 1= Elvis-A-Rama Museum closing.+++++++++Mid-Oct.= Shag With a Twist closing - Harmon Theater.++++++++++Oct.28= Hawaiian Luau closing at the Imperial Palace.+++++++++Nov. 1 = GOOD BYE STARDUST. Stardust will close to make way for the $4 billion multi-use development named Echelon Place.There were more characters in the Stardust Sportsbook than any-where else in Las Vegas! I’ll miss it. Go to the Stardust Sportsbook before it closes. Information and history: http://www.lvbusiness-press.com/articles/2006/01/19/columnists/col02.txt AFTER THE STARDUST, IMPLOSION RUMORS HAVE the New Frontier, Riviera and the Tropicana going down, but no definite announcements yet.+++++++++Dec.??= Noted architect Paul Steelman has been hired to design Montreux, the resort that will rise after the NEW FRONTIER is imploded at the end of 2006. Montreux, given a Swiss mountain theme, will cost $1.9 billion, sport 2,750 rooms priced around $200 a night and include a big shopping mall and dining and entertainment amenities. It will open in 2009.+++++++++2007= Sometime in early-2007 Caesars Palace headliner Celine Dion is closing her show as she is planning for a second child at the end of her Las Vegas run. Dion, whose 4-year deal expires in early 2007, told Tele 7 Jours, a French entertainment magazine, “I’m approaching 40 years old, and I have to tend to that.” Her son, Rene-Charles, was born in January 2001 after in vitro fertil-ization. The frozen embryo of her second child awaits in storage at a New York clinic. CHER IS RUMORED TO REPLACE HER.+++++++++2007= Sometime in mid-2007 Imperial Palace will close and will be demolished. Harrah’s will then be connected to the Flamingo.

====================================Please e-mail errors, omissions and additions to:billhere@VegasResource.com

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 9

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 10

Commentary: Albert ThomasContrarian Trading Works

Let’s say you want to buy some General Motors stock because you think it is going to go up. Your friend says don’t buy it because he thinks it is going to go down. Thinking about the same subject is contrary, but both can be wrong. It might only go sideways.

To be contrary in the stock market is a good way to make money. Almost all brokers think alike. That is what they have been taught. My experience having hired many brokers when I owned a brokerage company I know this is a fact. Few know what they are doing or why they do it.

To be a successful investor you must learn to be contrary. You must learn to think outside the box.

When I was an exchange member and floor trader I was known as a contrarian. I always wanted to know where the majority of traders had their money. Not just 50% or 60% of them, but 80% or 90%. Then I would wait for a special technical indicator I used to tell me when the mass of traders started to change their minds so I could either sell or buy opposite to the crowd. Once that happens it was like an avalanche as the equity started down or climbed out of a big hole like a geyser.

I was not always right, but when I was wrong the loss was very small. That is another contrarian “secret” of professional traders. The pros run quickly to keep losses small whereas the average trader and most brokers will watch and wait for it to come back so they can get out “even”. That’s

a loser’s philosophy.How many investors you know have an exit strategy? All the contrarians

do. They have gotten out of the box and know exactly when to run to protect their capital when they first buy or later as profits accumulate. They have a plan to keep the biggest part if the equity changes course to an opposite direction.

When everyone gets bullish it is time to examine your positions to think about your exit. When the market gets so bad and folks are cursing their brokers more than usual it is time to think about buying.

Wall Street has taught Joe Sixpack that he has to be invested all the time. They will never tell that cash is a position. If Joe had sold out the end of 2000 and been in a money market account for the next 2 years he would not have lost 40% to 60% or more of his money.

Today everyone is bullish on oil. It has dropped more than 20% yet the talking heads continue to tell you this is only a correction and it is going much higher, maybe $100. There are many trapped with losses mounting each day. Without an exit strategy it can only get worse.

Learn to think outside the box. Get away from crowd mentality. Be contrary. AL THOMASAl Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy It!” has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he’s the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 11

Enjoy Your Life…Now!

Are you enjoying your life right now? Is your life bringing you the kind of satisfaction and contentment you always hoped it would? It’s sad to say, but there are many people in this world who would have to answer “no” to these questions.

I believe one of the most dam-aging, hurtful things to our present is our past and our future. It’s easy to become so focused on the things that happened in the past—things we cannot change or do anything about—that we forget to focus on and realize the enjoyment in today…those things we can still control.

Likewise, it’s easy to fall into the trap of worrying and fretting about the future to the point where we no longer even consider the present. Today simply gets swallowed up in all of our worries about things that haven’t even happened yet.

I used to allow things to steal my joy about the present. I promised myself that I would finally begin to enjoy myself just as soon as the weekend got here, or as soon as I could complete the project I was working on, or get the grocery shop-ping done, or when the kids were finally off to school. Those traps are easy to fall into for all of us.

That’s why it’s so important that we become “now people.” Now people obey the Lord right NOW. They don’t put things off, but rather choose to do things immediately. They have been able to make the decision to enjoy life NOW.

One of the first things you need to do in order to start enjoying your life now is to stop wishing you had someone else’s life. Stop wishing you had someone else’s job or their house or their car. That kind of thinking will never bring you hap-piness.

You’ve heard the old saying,

“the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” Well, it may seem that way, but it’s not true. You can waste much of your life trying to get to the other side of the fence when the life God has for you is on your side of the fence.

People with curly hair wish they had straight hair, people with full-time jobs are tired of the rat race and wish they could work part-time while part-timers wish they had the security of full-time employment.

If you have been infected with this poison of discontent, if you don’t like your life or don’t like the person who is looking back at you in the mirror, you may be a candidate

to become a bitter, grumpy, “hard to get along with” person. You’ll find that you will never have enough to be happy.

You want a different house or a different car because you think those things will make you happy. You think you want something new or different because then you’ll final-ly find the happiness you’ve been searching for.

But true happiness and content-ment is found only in God. He’s the only one who can bring the content-ment you seek. If you continue to seek contentment in things, you’ll always be disappointed. If you con-tinue to allow regrets from the past

or worries about the future to steal your present, you’ll never have the happiness you seek.

Enjoying life now is a choice…it’s a decision. Today’s the day! Make the decision right now to be content with the things God has pro-vided. Trust that He will bring about all the things you need in His timing. Don’t take the poison of discontent. Begin to enjoy your life…NOW! JOyCE MEyERFor more on this topic, you may order Joyce’s four-part series, How to Succeed at Being Yourself, which is available by calling 1-800-727-9673 or visiting www.joycemeyer.org.

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 12

Commentary: Joyce Meyer

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 13

Anti-Gunners Fabricate Studies To Support Their PhilosophyBy JOSEPH P. TARTARO

Executive Editor, Gun Week

There is an old saying that “figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.”No better proofs of this saying can be found than the literature conjured

up in what purport to be anti-gun think tanks or among academics who share the anti-gunners philosophy. The Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center are always touting studies or reports, usually funded by those groups or the same foundations that underwrite most of the anti-gun camp.

A few of those studies were flogged around the media and the Internet in September following a Summer in which another collegiate study reveals once again that men are sexually turned on by handguns. The latter thesis is one that is so old it needs some of the stuff with which the spammers clog up your e-mail address.

The main principal of these questionable studies and reports is to fabricate a result that supports a particular view and then breathlessly announce it to the public through the media and selected websites.

Such was the case with a “study” by CeaseFire Maryland announced on Sept. 6 which claimed that “one semi-automatic assault rifle was traced to a Maryland crime every 48 hours.

“The data, from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) show that 789 assault rifles were traced to crime in Maryland from Jan. 2, 1998 to Dec. 31, 2001, but the actual number of assault weapons traced to crime in the state is likely to be higher,” a Ceasefire Maryland press release announced somewhat confusingly.

Legislative Agenda Of course, the study was immediately linked to a legislative agenda.“With assault weapons being traced to crime in Maryland an average of

every 48 hours, more needs to be done to get these guns off Maryland streets and to help law enforcement keep our communities safe,” said Lisa Delity, president of CeaseFire Maryland Inc.

The press release went on to inform us that Delity’s brother, FBI Special Agent Mike Miller, “was gunned down with an assault weapon at Washington, DC, police headquarters in November 1994.”

The report, it was explained, was authored by CeaseFire Maryland Inc. board member Sue Peschin, who identified firearms that had certain com-mon military calibers then narrowed the list by make and model. Entries with unknown makes and models were deleted. Finally, with the exception of the M1 Carbine, only those firearms that would be banned in Maryland under pro-posed assault weapons legislation from the 2006 legislative session were kept on the list. Therefore, the current data does not capture every assault weapon. CeaseFire Maryland also didn’t mention that not all guns traced by the ATF are necessarily linked to violent crimes, a problem that always occurs when the anti-gunners attempt to manipulate government data.

“According to the tracing data,” the anti-gun organization’s report con-tinued, “the most common assault rifles traced to crime by make and model include: 21 Colt AR-15s; 46 USA Military Surplus M1 Carbines; 55 Ruger Mini 14s; 92 Hi-Point 9mm carbines; and 294 North China Industries SKS variants.”

The report was released outside Valley Guns, a store whose federal fire-arms license was recently revoked. According to Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence President Paul Helmke, the store was chosen as the location for the report’s announcement because, “its proprietor represents what’s wrong with our gun laws.”

But press releases and media events are not the only way to promote anti-gun research. Books are important because they lend gravitas to the anti-gun research.

And in September, a new book by Saul Cornell, a professor of history at Ohio State University, that suggests “gun control is as American as venison pie” also made its public debut. The book is entitled A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America.

If you had any doubts about the direction that Cornell’s book takes, here’s a bit of the flackery that appeared in September.

“Cornell’s book examines the Founding Fathers’ concerns about the role

of guns in the militia and follows the twists and turns of the competing ide-ologies about guns through the 19th century and beyond. Cornell’s critically acclaimed book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of guns in America and the so-called ‘gun rights’ movement.”

Note that the publicist uses the term so-called “gun rights” movement, suggesting that no such rights exist, a position currently being flogged around the United Nations.

Cornell is also the author of The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828, and Whose Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect?

SuicidesSpeaking of the United Nations where the global gun control crowd

hangs out, a new study was also released in September by the World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the UN. This time, the researchers have taken a different tack. Instead of focusing on crimes of violence, they have turned to suicides, claiming that more people die from suicide than wars and murders. That’s a pretty big claim and is no more quantified and reproducible than the anti-gun claim that 1,000 people across the world die every day because of guns.

“More people kill themselves each year than die from wars and murders combined, but most suicides could be prevented,” according to two interna-tional suicide experts quoted in a report from SwissInfo.

The news comes as the Geneva-based WHO marks World Suicide Prevention Day in September and amid a debate in Switzerland on the high number of gun suicides.

Some 20 million to 60 million people try to kill themselves each year, but only about a million of them succeed, said Dr. Jose Manoel Bertolote, a mental health official at WHO.

The ones who do end their lives “are tragic situations where help could have been provided,” said Brian Mishara, president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) in Gondrin, France.

Suicide rates could be reduced if countries would limit access to pesti-cides, guns and medication and do a better job of treating people with depres-sion, alcoholism and schizophrenia, Mishara said.

About a third of all suicides around the world are caused by pesticides, said Bertolote.

Dentists, veterinarians and doctors are particularly at risk for suicide. Not because of their high stress professions but because they have access to lethal chemicals and know how to handle them, Bertolote said.

Those who lose a job abruptly are more likely to kill themselves than people living in poor social conditions for long periods, he said.

Also, people living in countries where suicide is illegal such as Singapore, Lebanon and India are less likely to seek help if they have suicidal thoughts, for fear the government may punish them, Mishara said.

“Those laws don’t appear to have a dissuasive effect, but rather make it more difficult for people to come forth and get help,” he said.

Swiss Gun DebateThose working to reduce the number of suicides have particular chal-

lenges in Switzerland, the news report claimed.Researchers at Zurich University published a study (Yes, another study)

at the end of August showing that Switzerland and the United States have the highest rates in the world of suicide involving guns.

According to the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, every day one person in Switzerland commits suicide with a firearm, usually a military weapon.

The researchers claimed that tighter gun laws would lead to fewer suicides involving firearms in Switzerland.

Following the study, Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid rejected calls for weapons to be kept in military storage to reduce Switzerland’s high rate of suicide by firearms, saying family tragedies and suicides were not valid reasons to stop soldiers from keeping their army weapons at home.

Apparently Schmid doesn’t assign much weight to studies that have tainted origins.

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 14

THE PENNY PRESS, OCTOBER 5, 2006 PAGE 15

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